on the morning of July 16,at 5:29:45 a.m., the Manhattan Project come to an explosive end as the first atom bomb was successfully tested at Trinity Site at the Alamogordo Bombing Range ( renamed The White Sands Missile Range) in the desert 120 miles south of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The scientists and a few dignitaries had removed themselves 10,000 yards away to observe as the first mushroom cloud of searing light (above) stretched 40,000 feet into the air and generated the destructive power of 15,000 to 20,000 tons of TNT. The tower on which the bomb (below) sat when detonated was vaporized.